Seven of the eight people killed in Niger on Sunday August 9 were members of the NGO Acted. They were accompanied by Khadri Abdou, president of the Association of Giraffe Guides of Kouré. Six were French, two - the driver and the association guide - Nigerien. Originally from Brittany, Occitania and the Côte d'Azur, the six French had studied economics, management and communication, before engaging in humanitarian work. We look back on their journey, while the Head of State Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to them before a ceremony took place in their memory.
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Charline Fouchet. Before being hired by Acted in Niger, which she joined last May, she had been in post for two years at the French Embassy in Nigeria. Doctor of Management Sciences from the University of Aix-Marseille, the young woman of 30 was also a member of the Socialist Party and had supported the candidacy of Benoît Hamon during the 2017 presidential election. On Twitter, the former socialist candidate and the president of the region Paca Renaud Muselier paid tribute to him.
Originally from Barentin, a town located in the Seine-Maritime department, in Normandy, Charline Fouchet passed her scientific baccalaureate there in 2007 at the Corneille high school. She will then obtain a DUT in Hygiene Safety Environment at the University of Le Havre, before continuing her studies in Scotland, where she will obtain a license in Occupational Safety and Health, as well as a Masters in Environmental Entrepreneurship. Back in France in 2011, she joined the University of Aix-Marseille where she obtained a doctorate in Management Sciences. She also taught at this university. On social networks, the Aix-Marseille University paid tribute to him: “ We will not forget him. We send our sincere condolences to his uncle, his family, his friends and relatives ”.
Myriam Dessaivre. Originally from Toulouse, Myriam Dessaivre is an alumnus of the private high school Sainte-Marie des Champs, where she obtained a literary baccalaureate. Passionate about international affairs and geopolitics, she mastered five languages, including Italian and Russian, and obtained a bachelor's degree in trilingual communication from the Institut Catholique de Toulouse. The young woman was also very involved in the associative life of the city: of Christian sensitivity and attached to the faith, she took care of the communication of the Ariège-Garonne department of Secours Catholique during the summer of 2013. Once she graduated from 'a master's degree in International Affairs and Development specializing in peace and conflict processes in Paris-Dauphine, she was immediately hired by Acted in 2018. For two years, she worked for the NGO in Paris, Tunisia, in Chad, then finally in Niger, for only a few months, where, barely 25 years old, she worked as a project development manager.
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Nadifa Louassa. The young woman had just joined Acted and Niger in June. This 30-year-old graduated from several masters in law and management, and was preparing a thesis on the arms trade at the University of Aix-Marseille. She began her studies with an economic preparatory class at the Lycée Notre-Dame de Sainte-Croix in Neuilly-sur-Seine and subsequently completed three masters in law and management at the National School of Insurance, the Pau-Bayonne University School of Management, as well as the Kedge Business School, in Rennes. She began her career as a financial analyst and management controller at Axa, in a Moroccan bank and then at Véolia. In 2015, she joined the Ministry of the Armed Forces within the financial services, and had notably been stationed in the Central African Republic. She had reoriented herself towards humanitarian aid after having followed a course in humanitarian project management.
Stella Gautron. Aged 28 and from Montpellier, Stella Gautron, after a scientific baccalaureate at Jean-Jaurès high school in Saint-Clément-de-Rivière, joined the University of Montpellier and obtained a degree in commerce and marketing. After a year of university exchange in Wateford, Ireland, she returned to France and completed two masters in management, marketing and communication at the Lille University Institute of Management and at the Marne-la-Management School. Gustave Eiffel Valley. For two years, the young woman juggles between her work in communication and her passion for humanitarianism. In 2017, she obtained a certificate from the Humanitarian Leadership Academy, as well as a certificate on international humanitarian law from the French Red Cross, where she had worked for a year as a volunteer. In 2018, she participated in a first mission for the NGO Oxfam, in the Central African Republic. Last year, she joined the Bioforce Institute, where she received training in coordinating an international solidarity project.
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Leo Alley. 25-year-old Léo Ruelle, originally from Brittany, had just finished his master's degree in logistics at the Rennes business school. Since April, he had a volunteer contract with the NGO Acted and was in particular in charge of logistics issues in Niger. He had previously worked as an intern at the NGO's headquarters in Paris.
Antonin Girardi. Also from Brittany, in Carhaix, Antonin Girardi was 26 years old. After a degree in economics and management at the University of Rennes and a literary preparatory class in economics, he joined the École normale supérieure de Cachan, then became a research assistant in a center attached to the National School of Statistics. and economic administration (Ensae). He was specialized in environmental and geographic economics, with a predilection for developing countries: he worked in particular on a research project on the exploitation of natural resources in developing countries by foreign companies. He would have carried out a first mission for Acted in Mali as financial manager, before going to Niger.
